Psychology 2032A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Autonomic Nervous System, Factitious Disorder, Mental Disorder

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2032A/B
• Professor: Kathleen McKeown

Document Summary

Relies on the assumption that deception is associated with physiological change. Polygraph - a device for recording an individual"s autonomic nervous system responses. Measure breathing, amount of sweat, and heart rate. May be administered to the suspect, victim, or witnesses. Insurance companies may use to verify claims of the insured. Has been used to monitor sex offenders on probation in the u. s. The most widespread at one point was to test employees for theft or drug use or prospective employees. Meet the suspect and do a pre-test interview. Do a series of yes or no questions with the polygraph measuring physiological responses. Then score the responses and do a post-test interview. Learns the background of the suspect and convinces them of the accuracy of the polygraph. Irrelevant questions refer to person"s identity or background. Relevant and comparison questions establish guilt or innocence. Guilty suspects are assumed to react more to relevant questions than comparison whereas innocent are the opposite.